Search - Frank Sinatra :: Great American Songbook

AVOID 'MARKETPLACE' COPIES - MAY INSTALL SONY ROOTKIT VIRUS

Greenlight | Vermont | 07/20/2008

(1 out of 5 stars)

"Hi Sinatra fans,



It's absolutely infuriating that Sony implanted a significant portion of the Frank Sinatra Great American Songbook CDs made up to 2005 with an instant-install rootkit copy protection scheme. The same goes for the Louis Armstrong and Billie Holiday Great American Songbook CDs. This Sony rootkit (The XCP rootkit) lodges itself in your Windows operating system if you so much as put the CD in your computer's drive, sends info to Sony, affects your performance, and has been exploited by hackers since 2004. Rootkits are notoriously difficult to detect and dislodge, and you have two options: Use the reputable company F-Secure's BlackLight rootkit detector, which is a free tool on their website, or use the Sony-provided removal tool, which you can get from the Sony site. Per Amazon's policy, I can't give you a link, but you can find the page by Googling "Sony XCP."



If you have a CD with bar code number 827969429129, then you have a CD with a rootkit problem.



In 2005, Sony also stated that it would allow owners to swap these CDs for new non-XCP copies -- but only if you have the precise bar code above. Still, there is no information on how to do so. My hunch is that you use the Tech Support link at the Sony XCP site to email Sony, and they'll provide the Return to Manufacturer details.



Amazon itself returned all of its old Frank Sinatra GAS copies to Sony, but the small sellers on Amazon Marketplace may still have the old copies for sale, unknowingly. Who knows what bar code you'll get if you buy one? Unfortunately, this also hoses all the people trying to sell their copies here on Amazon Marketplace. If you're a seller, I urge you to specify the barcode on your product."

Excellent cd!!!

Cameron T. Williams | Washington, DC | 05/07/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I loved the Frank Sinatra cd. It was in excellent condition and it came very fast! The seller was wonderful! I would do business again in a heartbeat."

An Old-Fashioned Enchantment From Mr. S

Rebecca*rhapsodyinblue* | CA USA | 05/20/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

""Sinatra invented and perfected the concept that motivates the performance of the Great American Songbook right up to today: that each song, each 32-bars of words and music, has to, in effect, become a chapter of autobiography ... Sinatra was the first great pop singer to prove that the great songs of George Gershwin, Jerome Kern and Irving Berlin had the same kind of permanence as the symphonies of Beethoven and Mozart." ~ Will Friedwald ~



Frank Sinatra's "The Great American Songbook" is another compilation CD from Sony Music released in 2005 consisting of fourteen of the finest songs he recorded with a brilliant arranger known as the "Father of Modern Orchestrator," Axel Stordahl. These tracks were selected from "The Columbia Years, 1943-1952: The Complete Recordings," so these songs are not new to me or to Sinatra aficionados, but I still think it's a worthy addition to any Sinatra collection. The thing I loved about this compilation is that I don't have to skip any track while listening -- all the songs are all-time favorites of mine from the perfect opener and closer, Cole Porter's "Night And Day" and "Begin The Beguine," respectively.



Will Friedwald eloquently articulated on Liner Notes that "to experience the Great American Songbook, you must begin with Frank Sinatra for he was not only the single greatest interpreter of the American popular songbook (no arguments, please) he was, in a sense, its inventor." I echo his sentiment. I'd like to think of Sinatra as the "Best Friend of the Great American Songbook, Male Category." (His female counterpart being Ella Fitzgerald).



While I'm totally delighted with Sinatra's complete body of work, I'm very partial to his earliest recordings from the Forties and Fifties where there is an abundance of old-fashioned enchantment and element of timeless elegance. Thanks to the brilliant chart arrangements of one of the finest Sinatra orchestrators, Axel Stordahl, whose works were the original masterpieces of romantic style with lush strings and classical touches. It's so unfair to single out a favorite song for all these songs are timeless beauties most especially "The Nearness of You," "Embraceable You," "Someone To Watch Over Me," "The Song Is You" and "That Old Feeling."



All the songs he interpreted from the Songbook became his very own. He gave a completely new meaning to each song. He imprinted his ineffaceable mark to each song that no other singer has rendered them in such enchanting manner as the Chairman of the Board did.



Need I say more? Please give this a listen and experience an old-fashioned enchantment from Mr. S. With my heartfelt recommendation for your nostalgic listen.

"